Sanctions against North Korea Stepped up by China and South Korea


03/08/2016



Stepping up sanctions against the isolated state, South Korea has announced a crackdown on individuals and companies linked to Pyongyang's weapons program and China has barred a North Korean freighter from one of its ports and South Korea announced a crackdown on individuals and companies linked to Pyongyang's weapons program, stepping up sanctions against the isolated state.
 
The Rizhao port in northeastern China did not allow a North Korean general cargo ship Grand Karo to berth after it arrived at the a few days ago, Reuters reported quoting a person at the Rizhao Maritime Authority.
  
Following the approval of covering of North Korean ships by harsher sanctions by the U.N. Security Council last week, China has blacklisted 31 vessels of North Korea.
  
Ship tracking data on the Reuters Eikon terminal showed on Tuesday that at least two other ships on the list of barred freighters are now sailing away after being anchored off Chinese ports. Safety deficiencies were found during a security and safety inspection of the vessel in another of the vessels in the Philippines and it has been banned from leaving port until deficiencies are rectified.
 
Ship tracking data showed that the 6,593 deadweight tonne (dwt) Grand Karo is now anchored about 35 km (22 miles) from Rizhao.
 
"The vessel operator will have to decide what they can do. If non-sanctioned North Korean ships enter the port, officials will ask senior authorities for instructions on how to deal with them," the Rizhao maritime official said.
  
Because of suspected links to North Korea's weapons program, new sanctions would be imposed against 40 individuals and 30 entities by the South Korean government, the government said. It would also ban vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days.
 
"We will expand financial sanctions related to North Korea, including 38 North Korean individuals and 24 entities responsible for developing weapons of mass destruction, and two individuals and six entities of third countries that have indirectly supported the North," a statement issued jointly by several ministries said.
 
A Singaporean and a Taiwan national who are heads of a shipping firm and a trading company are among the individuals subject to financial sanctions announced on Tuesday, the government said.
 
A Thai shipping firm called Mariner's Shipping & Trading and a Taiwan company Royal Team Corporation was also blacklisted by South Korea.
 
Those banned by South Korea would be barred from engaging in financial transactions with South Korean entities and their assets that are held in the country would be frozen, the government said.
 
One of the officials of Mariner's Shipping & Trading referred queries to the Thai foreign ministry and said: "All this has been very bad for us. Very bad for trade."
 
Ocean Maritime Management Co. Ltd is a North Korean company that has been blacklisted along with the 31 ships it controls and the Mariner's Shipping & Trading, with its head office in Bangkok, has operated and financed vessels associated with Ocean Maritime Management Co. Ltd.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)